The article "Florida school shooter kills 17" in the Feb. 16 edition makes me feel so sad that I can't help crying. Every time some dangerous person kills innocent people indiscriminately with a gun in America, my heart breaks and I think that the U.S. is a terrible country and that the American government, politicians, nay, all the American people should think about the present law that allows ordinary citizens to own and possess firearms.
Our country Japan may have some shortcomings, but we ordinary Japanese citizens are not allowed to own and possess firearms, which is a most sensible law. The U.S. should take Japan as a model, and prohibit its citizens from owning and possessing firearms, not to mention using them.
When do we ordinary citizens need firearms? We never need to use firearms in our daily life. Why should those lovely schoolchildren or young high school students lose their precious lives at the hand of a morally sick person? Why, indeed?
When I think of the deepest sorrow of the parents who have lost their dear children, I just can't shouting, "Why don't you Americans ban firearms?" The media have reported that this kind of shooting has happened as many as 18 times in the year 2018 alone! What a terrible country America is! Those lost, precious young lives can never be brought back. We should all raise our voices for those slain students and their parents.
Who is responsible for this horrible tragedy? The president, government officials, politicians of all political parties and all the American people who have kept the dangerous law unchanged throughout the long history of the United States! That's simply a shame! The law that allows ordinary citizens to own, possess and use firearms is simply senseless, and dangerous, and unthinkable in our country, Japan, and it should be amended immediately.
I love America, and that is why I raise my angry voice against the present law that allows morally sick people to kill innocent schoolchildren and other ordinary citizens with firearms. The people of the National Rifle Association need to realize the dangerous aspect of their business and start thinking of some other way which can protect the precious lives of ordinary citizens, especially children and high school students.
The opinions expressed in this letter to the editor are the writer's own and do not necessarily reflect the policies of The Japan Times.